08/16/2017

The WritingwithMachines group is looking forward to the fall semester. This blog is about to become enriched once again as we begin our pedagogy-based course on teaching composition with technology, the second course offered in our Certification Sequence. This semester, our "brown-bag" discussions will move to an online forum. We’ll miss the snacks, but we'll likely enjoy the more flexible and accessible forum Zoom affords. If you are interested in participating in exchanges that explore the intersections of writing, reading, technology, and pedagogy, we hope you will join us for one or many of these discussions.

WritingwithMachine's Fall Certification Sequence

The Fall Certification Sequence will begin September 11th. Faculty who participate will complete 5-units over the course 10-weeks, covering topics such as:

the benefits and limitations of digital feedback and assessments

how issues of accessibility and universal design are linked to concepts of rhetoric and composition

how to create collaborative assignments using networked technologies

We hope many of our colleagues who completed the Spring Certification Course will continue to edify our discussions this fall, and for anyone interested in joining us now, more information about how to prepare for the Sequence will be forthcoming. In the meantime, please scroll down and explore this blog, download the promotional flyer, or contact curry mitchell at cmitchell@miracosta.edu for more information.

WritingwithMachine's Fall Meeting Schedule

The WritingwithMachines group will host 3 open-discussion meetings in the fall on 9/21, 10/19, and 11/16 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm in Zoom. Participation is FLEX eligible. Stay for the whole hour or drop in for a bit. Enjoy rich inquiries with colleagues regarding reading, writing, technology, and pedagogy. Oh, and Canvas...we'll probably talk about Canvas too.

Contact curry (cmitchell@miracosta.edu) if you're interested, or check back on this blog to find the url to join the discussion. Hope to see you there!!

Well, it was some time ago that Unit 4 wrapped and the synchronous discussion became asynchronous.

So it goes.

What struck me about the synchronous discussion was the idea/perception/construct of the online environment as an archive, which tracks with the cautionary principle of the internet: that what you post there largely never goes away (or, perhaps more appropriately, is always findable). Secondly, the session itself struck me.

Making use of early drafts is a component of my face to face and online courses. Both versions of my Engl. 100 course, for example, use workshops to take students through research writing assignments. Each version of the paper that is work shopped is kept, with its attending feedback, and then submitted with the final paper. We study and make use of these track records, or archives, on any given assignment. I know there has been some discussion of how the online writing course demands more casual writing from students and we have considered how this free-floating writing might be mined for teachable moments, but that is something I have yet to get into.

The session itself illustrated my concerns about integrating synchronous content into the fully online course. Inevitably, there will be those who cannot participate and that divides the class into those who could and those who couldn't. Sure, they can watch what happened asynchronously, but if the argument is that the synchronous session ads something essential to the course — which is why it was included — then some students are missing something essential. I think we have to be cautious about adding synchronous elements into courses that bill themselves as asynchronous opportunities to students who require that flexibility to succeed.

Something I might use right away — perhaps a mashup. Creating more dynamism in the peer review process by pairing students or small groups of students and creating opportunities for them to have a synchronous dialogue about their work, which they could record and submit along with copies of their peer reviewed work to be archived for review later in the writing process.

Hello everyone! I want to thank each of you for sharing your classroom experiences, ideas, and insights. Your posts have helped me reflect on my own teaching and have inspired me! And thank you Jim and curry for designing this sequence of activities. These discussions have enlarged my understanding of teaching online writing and helped me see all the possibilities of effective, engaging online learning!

05/02/2017

Hello, fellow online learners. Thanks for your insights this semester. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn from you all and engage in meaningful conversations about teaching writing online. I look forward to working with you in the future! Have a bitchin’ summer 😉